Mayor Michael B. Coleman said last week that the campaign will follow state law and won’t
release the information early. He also wouldn’t say how much the campaign intends to spend.

But the amount is expected to be more than $1 million. The campaign has been running television
commercials for weeks, something not common this early in previous campaigns.

Despite that, Coleman was reserved this week about the chances that voters will approve the
property-tax increase, saying he thinks it “has a shot.”

Many people he has talked with have problems with the current school board and/or giving local
tax money to charter schools, he said, but after he explains to them that he is trying to bring
reforms to both groups of schools, they understand.

• • •

Hilliard remains among the top districts in the state where students have made more than a year’s
worth of learning during the school year.

The state, as required by law, recently released rankings of districts by their “value-added”
and performance-index ratings. New this year: gifted rankings for districts.

Among 834 school districts statewide, including charters, four local ones landed in the top 10:
Hilliard (No. 2 behind Lakota schools near Cincinnati); South-Western (No. 3); Columbus Preparatory
Academy, which is a West Side charter school (No. 4); and Upper Arlington schools (No. 5).

Hilliard landed the No. 1 spot last year among all Ohio districts.

Nine districts, including Columbus, were not ranked, because of the state investigation of data
manipulation.

Columbus Preparatory Academy ranked No. 1 in the state in the performance-index score, which
looks at how well students perform on state tests. Dublin Jerome High School had the highest
ranking among local non-charter schools — No. 5.

The Dublin district was the only local district to place in the top 10 for making gains with
gifted students. The district ranked ninth.

• • •

Columbus remained the largest school district in Ohio, with 49,494 students, according to last
year’s state data.